“A couple of months ago I wrote a security howto for Linux
newbies, the goal of which was to help people achieve decent
security using easy and safe techniques. Now it’s time to address
you power users out there, by which I mean people comfortable with
the command line, using a text editor from the console, and
tweaking configuration files — people confident enough in their
ability to recover from unpleasant surprises to take a bit of risk
with their systems in the interest of securing their data and their
privacy.“I’ll get into the Linux home network soon in a forthcoming
article with our John Lettice. For now I’ll concentrate on data
hygiene and on-line anonymity. Why? [B]ecause your Linux box is
literally peppered with data traces indicating the Web sites you’ve
visited, the files you’ve uploaded and downloaded, and every file
you’ve recently accessed. You think encryption is the way to go?
Think again. It’s only as private as your passphrase is strong. It
may be impractical for a remote attacker to crack it, but a
brute-force attack is quite plausible for someone who has physical
possession of your box and plenty of time. Like a police forensics
lab, say…”
Related Story:
The Register: Internet Anonymity for Linux Newbies(Aug 28,
2002)